If there’s one thing I miss about Southern California (where I grew up) it’s the Mexican food. Granted, most of it isn’t genuinely Mexican food, it’s Tex-Mex or Mex-inspired. But it’s still good and I still miss it. And I love a good enchilada (or enchilada casserole).
I decided not too long ago that I wanted to make an enchilada casserole so I went looking around online. I couldn’t find any particular one that I thought looked good by itself, so I ended up sort of pulling in bits and pieces of different recipes I found and came up with this one… which came out really good. We’ll be making this dish again, believe me.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 12 corn tortillas (6-inch size)
- 1 15oz can of seasoned black beans, drained (can use unseasoned if you prefer)
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 3 cups shredded cheese OR 2 1/2 8oz packages shredded cheese of your choice (I like Kraft Creamy Melt Mexican for this)
- 1 2.25oz can sliced black olives (optional, if you don’t like olives you can leave these out)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 packet OR 1/4 cup taco seasoning
- 1 28oz can enchilada sauce (I used medium, you can use whatever you prefer). You will be dividing this up as you make the dish so have a measuring cup ready.
- Note: If you have a recipe for making your own enchilada sauce, feel free to use it instead!
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
In a skillet, brown the ground beef and season it with the salt and pepper. Once the meat is all broken up, add the diced onion. Continue browning until the meat is cooked through. If you need to drain it, drain it before you add the taco seasoning. Add the taco seasoning and 1 cup of sauce and stir, cooking for another couple of minutes to make sure the seasoning and sauce is all through the meat.
(Note: I tried this recipe with shredded chicken as well and wasn’t crazy about how it came out. If anyone tries this with chicken and it works well, let me know in the comments.)
Once this is done, remove from heat and stir in the black beans. Set aside.
Layer six tortillas in the baking dish spread out as evenly as you can. There will be some overlap and that is fine. Drizzle them with about a cup plus an ounce or two of the sauce.
Divide the meat mixture in half and put half on top of the tortillas. Top with about 1 cup/1 package of cheese shreds and about half the can of sliced black olives.
Layer the other 6 tortillas on top of this, and drizzle the rest of the sauce over them. Top with the remaining meat mixture, then top THAT with the rest of the cheese and sliced black olives.
Bake uncovered for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is nice and bubbly.
It makes a fairly good sized amount of food but it tastes really good as leftovers, reheated in the microwave too. Enjoy!